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It is safe to say that the more people who see your artwork, the better your chance will be to sell your artwork.
The million-dollar question is, how do you get your art in front of a large group of people willing to reach into their pockets?
Today I would like to talk about why artists selling art online need a social media marketing strategy and how to get started so you can begin to reach a broader audience.
Why Artists Selling Art Online Need A Social Media Marketing Strategy
Social media platforms are a great way to reach a broader audience.
Many artists struggle on social media because they become impatient or do not like to try new marketing strategies.
There is no such thing as instant success on social media.
All of the people and businesses that you see who is doing well on social media have worked hard to build their audience.
They try multiple strategies, analyze the results, and tweak them to make them better.
These steps are ongoing. They are continually revising their social media marketing strategy because social media is continuously changing.
Below is an outline of some useful social media marketing strategies.
Sell Your Art By Blogging
Before we get started talking about why artists selling art online need a social media marketing strategy, I want to take a minute talking about the real money-maker, an artist blog.
Your artist blog will be the fuel that drives traffic to your art landing pages (pages where people can purchase a specific piece of art you are showcasing).
It is incredible to see the number of artists worldwide who are successfully selling products online from home.
All you have to do is search paintings for sale or oil painting in Google’s search, and you will find thousands if not millions of artists selling art.
Have you ever wondering how some artists reach the first page of Google’s search?
There are many factors involved in Google’s indexing, but the bottom line is that the artists you see on page one have developed a content marketing strategy (blogging) that works.
Blogging Benefits You Should Know:
- Increase traffic to your art listings
- Increase revenue (A great example of a blogger monetizing his blog successfully is Pat Flynn)
- Grow email list
- Be seen as an authority in your niche (People will feel safer purchasing from you)
- Businesses whom blog make 6x more money than companies who do not own a blog
- Bloggers make a living monetizing their blog.
These are just a few examples of how your art blog will help you build a successful online art business.
But how can you achieve these results when you are first starting your blog?
With millions of blogs around, you have little chance of getting noticed.
The truth is that it takes time to have your blog indexed by Google (appear in the search results).
Is there a way to speed up the process?
Is there a way for you to have your blog posts seen when your artist blog is new?
The answer is yes, there is a solution, and that is to utilize social media.
A well designed social media plan is all you need.
You noticed I said a well designed social media plan, right?
Don’t think that this is a quick fix or that all you have to do is post here and there to have thousands of people visit your blog.
It takes planning and hard work.
Social Media
Social media has changed blogging, and the way businesses market their brand.
Years ago, all you had to do was learn about SEO, and you could easily have your site ranked high in the search results.
Related Source: WordPress SEO Basics
Today you will have to do more than just think about keywords.
Related Post: Keyword Research Strategies for Artists Selling Art Online
If you want to separate yourself from all of the other artists online, you will need to be an expert in content marketing, social media marketing, and video marketing.
Do not be scared by the word expert.
You do not have to go to college for ten years to rank high in Google’s search results.
All you have to do is be better than your competition.
Social Media Marketing Strategies
Ok, now that you are excited to start developing some useful social media strategies, let’s get started so you can begin to build an audience and sell your art online.
Optimizing Your Artist Blog
Have you ever visited a blog and wanted to contact the blogger or share a post with your friends but could not find a contact page or an easy way to share the post?
If you really wanted to share a post, you could always copy the link, log into your social media account, paste the code, and then write a comment, but who has time for that?
The layout of your blog is essential for the growth of your art business.
You want to make it easy for people to find what they are interested in, a way for them to contact you, and a way to share your posts.
How To Optimize Your Artist Blog For Social Media
Start by adding a Contact page to your blog.
You want to make it easy for your readers or potential buyers to contact you if they have a question.
Odds are you will be losing sales if you do not provide a way for a potential buyer to contact you.
Related Post: How Contact Pages Increase Art Sales
The next step is to allow comments on your blog.
Some bloggers do not like to allow comments on their blog, but I think it is a great way to interact with your audience.
Not only will you be able to build relationships with your readers, but you will also be able to find out what topics they are interested in.
You can then take the information you collected and write posts that will be valuable to your readers.
Related Post: How to Manage Comments on WordPress
After you have added a contact page and set up your blog to allow comments, you will want to add follow buttons on your site.
Follow buttons that make it easy for your readers to follow you on your social media platforms.
Most people will not take the time required to copy a link and post it on their social media pages.
They will be more apt to share your content if you provide a one-click solution.
Every WordPress theme will have a different way for you to add follow buttons, so just do a Google search for how to add social follow buttons on the Theme you are using.
The last step is to add social share buttons.
If you are using WordPress for your blogging platform, you will find thousands of free and premium social share plugins.
I have tried many free and paid social share plugins over the years and was never 100% satisfied until I stumbled on Social Warfare.
Social Warfare Features:
- Gorgeous, responsive share buttons
- Easy to use
- Lightning fast
- Control what people share, and how they share it
- Amazing support team
- Pinterest images
- Custom Tweets
- Popular Posts
And much more…. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE
Effective Social Media Strategies
Now that you have your blog optimized and ready to be shared on social media, it is time to start developing a social media marketing strategy.
Here are some tips that have helped me to speed up the growth of my blog.
Automate Your Posts
If you have not already, you will soon realize that there is a lot of work that is involved in selling art.
You not only have to be a creative artist, but you also have to be a marketing expert (or at least be a better marketer than your competition).
The good news is that there are tools available that will make many jobs more manageable.
One way to save a ton of time is to use a social media tool that will schedule your posts on your social media accounts.
I have yet to find one tool that works for all social media accounts, but so you might have to use a few to get the job done.
Here are some of my favorites:
Engage With Your Audience
To get the most out of your social media marketing plan, you will have to take some time to engage with your audience.
Be social. After all, that is what social media platforms are for, right?
If someone retweets one of your tweets, send a thank you tweet.
If someone comments on a Facebook post, take a second, and join the conversation.
If someone comments on a YouTube video, take fifteen seconds to comment back.
This helps you build brand awareness, but you will also be building your reader’s trust.
Best Time To Share On Social Media
You will find thousands of articles that will tell you when the best time to post on social media is.
The truth of the matter is the best time to post is when your audience is on social media.
Everyone will have a different audience, so you will need to take some time to learn when your audience is on the social media platforms you are marketing on and develop a schedule that will complement your audience’s times.
For example, you will want to post at a different time if most of your audience lives in France than if they lived in the US.
Create A Social Media Calendar
A social media calendar will help you to stay on track with your marketing goals.
Instead of posting a post here and there, have a plan.
Utilize the analytics your social networking platform provides.
Almost every social media platform provides free analytics, so take advantage of them.
Remember what I said earlier; you do not have to be a social media marketing guru. You just have to be better than your competition.
Studying what is working for you and learning more about your audience will help you make better decisions.
Social Media Analytics will help you:
- To know what type of content your audience likes
- Understand trends
- Know what your audience is saying about you
- Know when your audience is online
- Provides topics you can write about
Networking
Social media allows you to connect with anyone around the world.
So why not follow experts in your niche?
You can learn from the greats by watching how they interact on social media, what type of content they are sharing, and how often they are posting.
Take some time to engage with your influencers’ posts.
Over time they will become familiar with who you are, and you never know you might even become friends.
Provide Value
The best social media strategy I can give you is always to publish high-quality posts that provide value to your audience.
There is more to marketing your art on social media than just posting images of your art.
You will have to spend some time learning more about your audience’s interest and providing valuable content that interests your audience and relates to your artist brand.
Final Thoughts On Artists Selling Art Online Need A Social Media Marketing Strategy
The internet and other companies provide everything you need to sell your art to people around the world.
Your job is to create beautiful art and find a way to get your art in front of your target audience (the people who have a passion for your artistic style).
The content you write for your artist blog should provide value to the people you are trying to sell.
Keep in mind that it will take several months for your blog posts to see results.
Developing a great social media plan will help you to get the ball rolling.
Why Artists Selling Art Online Need A Social Media Marketing Strategy & How To Get Started Overview:
- Social Media Marketing
- Social Media Marketing Strategies
- Optimizing Your Artist Blog
- Effective Social Media Strategies
- Automate Your Posts
- Engage With Your Audience
- Best Time To Share On Social Media
- Create A Social Media Calendar
- Networking
- Provide Value
You might also be interested in:
- Easy Social Media Strategies That Drive Traffic to Art Blogs
- 9 Effective Tips On How To Sell Your Art Blogging
- Best Places to Sell Art Online
- 9 Social Media Marketing Tips for Artists Selling Art Online
- How Artists Can Save Time Scheduling Social Media Posts
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